Polish Greatness (Blog): anti-semitism

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February 21, 2018

FEBRUARY 21 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

FEBRUARY 21

1895

Szmul Zygielbojm (dob) was a Jewish-Polish socialist politician, leader of the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish Government in Exile. He committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust. He submitted a long, detailed "suicide letter", addressed to Polish president Władysław Raczkiewicz and Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski, Zygielbojm stated that while the Nazis were responsible for the murder of the Polish Jews, the Allies were also culpable (for their inaction). Here is an excerpt of his letter: "The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. By looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility. I am obliged to state that although the Polish Government contributed largely to the arousing of public opinion in the world, it still did not do enough. It did not do anything that was not routine, that might have been appropriate to the dimensions of the tragedy taking place in Poland.... I cannot continue to live and to be silent while the remnants of Polish Jewry, whose representative I am, are being murdered. My comrades in the Warsaw Ghetto fell with arms in their hands in the last heroic battle. I was not permitted to fall like them, together with them, but I belong with them, to their mass grave. By my death, I wish to give expression to my most profound protest against the inaction in which the world watches and permits the destruction of the Jewish people........"

1937

Camp of National Unity (OZN) was founded by the leadership in the Sanacja movement after the death of Pilsudski. The aim of OZN was to improve Poland's national defense and to safeguard the April 1935 Constitution. OZN was strongly pro-military, and its politicians sought to portray Marshal Rydz-Śmigły as successor to Marshal Józef Piłsudski. The OZN adopted 13 theses on the Jewish question. Modeled after the Nuremberg laws, they labelled Jews as a foreign element that should be deprived of all civil rights and ultimately expelled altogether.

1939

Nazi Germany enacted a barrage of anti-semitic legislation, and forced Jews to hand over any personal valuable items. Jewish businesses and bank accounts were expropriated. It was Nazi-legalized robbery on a massive scale. After the Nuremberg Legislation and during 1938 "worse than total expropriation was to follow - economic harassment quickly escalated to violence forcing the Jews to flee the Reich or the newly annexed Austria. Within the second phase 1938 was the fateful turning point." Among the decrees was the decertification of all Jewish physicians, who were no longer allowed to treat German patients; Jewish children were forbidden to attend public school; Jews were forbidden to attend concerts, theatre or opera, or even have a garden.

1944

Churchill advised Stalin that the Polish Government-in-Exile was ready to accept the Curzon Line as a basis for talks and assured him that by the time they resumed diplomatic relations with the Soviets, their government would only consist of members willing to co-operate with Moscow. Stalin remained unconvinced. (Note: The Polish Government in Exile never accepted the Curzon Line, and were not willing to "co-operate' with Moscow.)

February 27, 2012

WW2 PROPAGANDA: WAR OF WORDS Part 2 Nazi Propaganda

By the time he rose to power in 1933 Adolf Hitler was made into the very personification of a "saviour" and mesmerized millions of Germans who worshiped him as an idol. In the video above he presented himself as the collective consciousness of the German people, acting on behalf of their interests, and spewed rhetoric of the need to defend Germany against its enemies. The German people looked up to him as their only hope for the restoration of their national pride and readily embraced everything that he said believing it to be the Gospel truth.

The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 had dealt Germany harsh terms after their defeat in World War I. It forced them to admit responsibility for causing the war and imposed stringent demilitarization in addition to territorial changes and financial reparations. The humiliation and anger felt by the German people was shared by Hitler and it was from this cauldron of discontent that he emerged to lead the nation. The German people saw him as the only leader who was capable of restoring Germany to glory. But the world recognized him for what he was, the Incarnation of Evil.

This propaganda poster underscored by the inscription "Long live Germany" depicted Hitler as a savior to the nation. It illustrates a silhouette of the German eagle as if it were descending from the heavens, like the dove which descended upon Jesus Christ at his Baptism. Nazi propaganda projected Hitler as the very embodiment of the German nation. It is interesting to note that before Hitler's appearances at Nazi rallies, his deputy Rudolph Hess would deliver rousing introductions, bordering on the verge of hysteria, and proclaimed to ecstatic crowds that "The Party is Hitler! But Hitler is Germany, as Germany is Hitler!" It was not an improvisation but the tactics of a meticulously prepared propaganda. The tone of these words held an uncanny similarity to those spoken by Jesus to his disciples. In the Book of John, Chapter 14:20, Jesus said, "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."The origin of one was totalitarian and the other Divine, but both statements were an affirmation of absolute unity, calling for the total sacrifice and subordination of the individual to an established doctrine.

This is an NSDAP (Nazi Party) poster which was circulated in Germany circa 1924. It depicted an eagle as having broken free from its chains and the symbol of the rising swastika on the horizon as the harbinger of a new dawn. It was a Nazi promise that under the yoke of Hitler, Germany would be liberated from the bondage that was the Treaty of Versailles. During the inter-war period, the Weimar Republic experienced an alarming degree of hyperinflation which led to Germany defaulting on its reparation payments. Consequently, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr seizing valuable industrial assets. The climate of resentment and outrage was fertile ground for Hitler and the Nazi Party to wield its ideology.

Propaganda was the key. Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published in 1925 was a veritable blueprint of theories and ideologies that would later become instrumental in the policies of the Third Reich. This treatise on propaganda was permeated with Hitlers perverse vision of the world and of humanity, and amounted to nothing more than a jumble of logical fallacies. Just like all the despots who came before, and after him, Hitler understood the means with which to conquer the soul of the German people, and to defeat his enemies. Simplicity and generalizations were the order of the day, as provided by the following quotation.

"The people in their overwhelming majority are so feminine by nature and attitude that sober reasoning determine their thoughts and actions far less than emotion and feeling. And this sentiment is not complicated, but very simple and all of a piece. It does not have multiple shadings; it has a positive and a negative; love or hate; right or wrong; truth or lie; never half this way and half that way, never partially, or that kind of thing." (Hitler)

Hitler knew that the most effective propaganda campaigns had to be constructed with the most simplest of messages, so that the weakest link in society could understand them. It had enormous appeal not only to young Germans but to compatriots who were provincial in their outlook of things. He said that "the receptive powers of the masses are very restricted and their understanding feeble. On the other hand they quickly forget." Posters and photographs of Hitler posing with German children were intended to project his image as that of a loveable father figure. Stalin, who was as great a mass murderer as Hitler, generated the same kind of propaganda.

Just eight days after having been elected as Chancellor of Germany, Hitler established the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and appointed Joseph Goebbels as its head. Their objective was to spread Nazi ideology throughout the globe, and maintain an iron-fisted control over every aspect of German society and culture. One department dealt exclusively with German and international newspapers. Other departments worked on assigned portfolios such as Budget, Law, Propaganda, Radio, Film, Personal, Defence, International, Theatre, Music, Literature, Visual Arts, and Tourism. In 1933 the fledgling Ministry had only five departments and 350 employees but by 1939 at the start of World War II there were 2,000 employees in 17 departments. Quite noteworthy is that between 1933 and 1941 the Ministry's propaganda budget skyrocketed from 14 million to 187 million Reichsmarks.

Hitler Youth was established in 1922 as a paramilitary division of the Nazi Party composed of youth 14 to 18 years of age but included members as young as 10 years old. They were considered the future of the German Reich and were indoctrinated in Nazi ideology at a very young age - inculcated with the principles of honour, sacrifice and anti-Semitism. As part of their scouting activities they went camping, played sports, exercised and competed for badges. They also distributed Nazi propaganda literature, and recruited new members. Initially none received weapons training, however during the Allied bombing of Germany, boys of Hitler Youth charged into battle willing to die for Hitler. The girls however were groomed for a future role of wife and mother.

Nazi ideology was diffused through a vast array of propaganda in the form of posters, film, literature and even postage stamps glorifying German women in the role of motherhood for the Reich. Women were encouraged to have as many children as possible otherwise, Hitler warned, the German race would be overrun by so-called inferior races. They even received "mothers crosses", medals that looked similar to military decorations, in gold, silver, or bronze. The bronze medal was awarded to mothers with four children, the silver medal to mothers of 6 children, and the gold medal to mothers of 8 or more children. They were distributed annually at Mother's Day rallies, and members of the Hitler Youth were ordered to salute them military-style. The good German mother was considered to be the one who submitted to to the demands of the State while fulfilling her destiny of protecting the purity of German pedigree.

anchluss propaganda postcard

Upon Hitler's rise to power, he revived the ambitions for Pan-Germanism, a political ideology based on ethnocentrism and racism which had its origins in the 19th century. Its aim was the reunification of all Germanic peoples of Europe, and was the impetus that led to the anchluss - the occupation and annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March 1938 followed soon after by the annexation of Sudetenland and the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Ambitions for Pan-Germanism was not a new concept but originally took hold during the Napoleonic wars with the birth of "romantic nationalism". Germany's history had long been one of fragmentation consisting of a disconnected patchwork of states. It was the goal of the Nazi Party to re-unite ethnic Germans into a larger "Great Germany" through invasion and "liberation" of neighbouring countries.

Poster Nazi Blitzkrieg of Poland

The major focus of Nazi ideology was Hitler's vision of
"lebensraum", that is, living space for the Greater German state After having already annexed Austria, and invaded Czechoslovakia, Germany targeted Poland. Hitler feigned an attempt to negotiate with the Polish government for the control of the Free City of Danzig, and access through the Polish Corridor to East Prussia, but Poland refused, cognizant of Hitlers real agenda. On August 31, 1939, Nazi SS disguised in Polish uniforms staged an attack against a German radio station at Gleiwitz (Gliwice) and broadcast the incident to the world as so-called "evidence" of Polish aggression against Germany. It was the pretext that Hitlerr needed to start a war. The very next day Germany invaded Poland without a declaration of war.

Polish civilians and soldiers in towns throughout the western frontier of Poland fled the German onslaught. In the town of Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) the Poles who fled succeeded in killing approximately 5,000 to 6,000 ethnic Germans. These Germans who were formerly neighbors, were suspected by the Poles of being spies for the Nazi regime, traitors, or snipers. Nazi propagandists pounced on the opportunity to elicit support from Germans and the world by fabricating the number of Germans killed to that of 58,000. The Nazis published the following photograph in one of their newspapers as "proof" of the atrocities committed by the Polish people. Wehrmacht soldiers and journalists were photographed inspecting the scene of a so-called massacre of Bloody Sunday, September 3, 1939. Notice the editor's crop marks at the top of the photo, an indicator that it was selected for publication in a Nazi newspaper.

Anglio Twoje Dzielo! ( Britain, Your Work!)
This Nazi propaganda poster depicted the image of a wounded Polish soldier blaming Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for the Polish defeat in the September Campaign in September 1939. (The British Prime Minister had already ceded Czechoslovakia to Hitler a year earlier as a result of the Munich Agreement.) Hence, Nazi propaganda attempted to persuade the Poles into joining the German army but few did. The Polish people harbored a great deal of animosity and distrust against Germany, the result of centuries of German occupation and partition of Poland.

"Der Pimpf" was the name of a Nazi magazine which began publication in 1935, as "Morgan", but was changed in 1937. The name "Der Pimpf" means "little rascal", "scamp", or "little fart." The magazine had wide appeal among young German boys who were easily indoctrinated with Nazi ideology. It contained articles glorifying the adventures of the Hitler Youth and urged young Germans to aspire to become SS soldiers. On the cover of this issue, a drawing of the Polish cavalry was depicted as charging towards German tanks. This was purely a myth perpetuated by the Nazis, from the first day that Poland was invaded by Germany. In the "Skirmish of Krojanty" the Polish cavalry led a charge against a German infantry battalion but was forced to retreat under a barrage of fire by German armoured personnel carriers. Shortly thereafter a team of reporters had converged on the area, and seeing the dead bodies of Polish cavalrymen and their horses, assumed that they had charged against German tanks. It provided the Nazis with the opportunity to perpetuate the myth, in an effort to undermine and humiliate the Poles in the eyes of the world.To this day, many people still believe this Nazi propaganda.

Nazi German Poster of Eagle with wings spread over Europe and Russia ("Deutschlands Europaische Sendung") This poster was distributed by the Nazis throughout occupied Europe, circa 1942 onward. It was an attempt by Hitler to persuade Europe that Germany was part of the Eastern crusade against Bolshevism. (The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, ie, the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union, signed on August 23, 1939 was the precursor to the joint invasion and partition of Poland on September 1st, 1939.) The treaty was abrogated when Hitler turned his armies against Russia in June 1941. Hitler called it Operation Barbarossa, named after the medieval ruler Frederick Barbarossa, who according to legend would rescue Germany in her time of need. Despite initial successes the Nazi armies were ultimately decimated.

Der Sturmer was the most vehemently anti-Semitic newspaper in Nazi Germany. This image was the front page of its May 1934 issue which depicted a caricature of Jewish men collecting the blood of Christian children for a religious ritual. It was one of many anti-Semitic slurs against the Jews and included accusations of pornography, anti-capitalism and anti-catholicism. Jews were portrayed as ugly characters with grotesque facial features and misshapen bodies. The publisher of the tabloid, Julius Streicher, promoted the myth of blood libel which had originated during the Middle Ages. It claimed that Jews killed Christian children, sacrificed them and drank their blood. This propaganda continues today and finds acceptance largely among the uneducated, the provincial, and most particularly the disenfranchised.

Nazi propaganda portrayed the Jews as the cause of all Germany's economic and social problems and accused them of international capitalism and Bolshevism. In a speech given by Hitler at a Nazi rally, he asked the audience who was responsible for Germany's defeat in WWI and the audience erupted "the Jews". The indoctrination was complete. In this poster from 1942, the Jews were depicted carriers of typhus. It was a metaphor Hitler often used to portray Jews as a source of moral and social decay. By then Jews had been deported to Nazi German concentration camps where they were starved, tortured and worked to death. Outbreaks of typhus in the camps and lice infestation among the Jewish inmates were held as "proof" by the Nazis that the Jews were a race of "dangerous bacillus".

Translated to English, the slogan means "Smash the Enemies of Greater Germany", and illustrated the anger felt by Germans against Britain, US, and Russia. This poster dates to the summer of 1940. At that time a battle was raging which ultimately marked the turning point for Allied fortunes during WWII. It was the Battle of Britain, which pitched the forces of the Luftwaffe against that of the RAF. Germany failed to destroy Britain's formidable air defenses and met with its first major defeat of the war. Churchill praised Allied pilots who fought in Battle of Britain in a historic speech - "Never was so much owed by so many to so few".

Fundamental to Nazi ideology was the myth of the "master race" exemplified by the white skin, and blue-eyed blondes of the German and Nordic peoples, and with it came the notion of safeguarding the so-called "purity" of their race as a means to preserve their idea of cultural superiority in a world of mongrels. Much of this theory has been borrowed from various sources. The writings of a French aristocrat and racial theorist, Arthur de Gobineau claimed that the fall of the ancient regime in France was the result of racial degradation brought about by racial mixing, for which he blamed the Jews. (This provided the Nazi Party with fodder to make similar pronouncements about the Jews in relation to Germans.) But Hitler was most influenced by a French biologist and founder of genetics Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who, unlike Darwin, categorized each race in a specific order from the origin of apes. A German geneticist, Ernst Haeckel elaborated on this theory by organizing each race in gradations from "fully human" to "subhuman". The word "aryan" was derived from the Sanskrit word "arya" which means "honourable", "respectable" and "noble" however in its original unadulterated version, arya did not refer to Germanic peoples but rather to the Indo-Iranian peoples. However by the 18th century Europeans altered its definition to include Indo-European ancestry which included Greeks, Latin, and Germans.

Nazi Propaganda Film
The Eternal Jew

"Der Ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew) was a Nazi propaganda film produced by the Ministry of Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. As with all other media generated by the Nazi Party, its intention was to mold public opinion. It was always the same refrain; to stereotype the Jews as grotesque, as parasitic and as untermenschen bent on enslaving the world. The film was produced as if it were a documentary but it was a chain of staged events narrated with the most venomous vitriol. The Germans ordered the Jewish congregation of Vilker synagogue to assemble for full services wearing tallithim and tefillin. When the Rabbi was ordered to read from the Torah, he looked at the camera and uttered, "Today is Tuesday". It was a signal to indicate that the assembly was coerced, because the Torah is never read on Tuesdays.

This Nazi propaganda poster dated from 1941 reads as "Europe's Victory is Your Prosperity". Germany is depicted here by the mailed fist which is shown to have defeated England, hence the cross on the graveyard, and is then poised to destroy Stalin and the Soviet Union. (But Hitler was unable to invade England in 1940 which marked his first major defeat in the war. His adventures in the Soviet Union will have proved equally futile, but with greater losses.) Hitler was vehemently opposed to communism and regarded the Soviet Union as the repository of European Jewry and Bolsheviks. He warned that a "victory of Bolshevism over Germany would not lead to a Versailles Treaty, but to the final destruction, indeed the annihilation of the German people." Until 1942, the Nazis promoted the slogan, "Der Russe sei eine Bestie, er muesse verrecken." meaning "the Russian is a beast, he must croak" but the slur was quickly dropped when the German labor force needed Russian workers. Hitler also condemned capitalism, and the Jews for monopolizing global wealth for "selfish purposes". (Such generalizations were used by the Nazi Party in a calculated attempt to rally support from German factions left and right.) The impetus for invading Russia was to guarantee the security and safety of a Greater Germany however "lebensraum" or "living space" was a really a euphemism for Nazi plunder of neighboring countries.

Editor's Note:

The video, images and quotations presented in this special series are for educational purposes and not meant as dissemination of Nazi propaganda. Our best defense against propaganda is knowing how to define and identify it.

Polish Greatness.com and Polish Greatness (Blog) are fiercely opposed to Nazism and neo-Nazism and strongly condemns all private or public persons, organizations, leaders, and nations which promote hate propaganda in any form.

NEXT

WW2 PROPAGANDA: WAR OF WORDS

Soviet Propaganda

January 27, 2012

THE COURAGE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH: RESPECTING INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

On January 27, 1945 Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by soldiers of the First Ukrainian Front, the 322nd Rifle Division of the 60th Army, under the command of Marshal Ivan S. Konev. Soviet troops had been pushing westward in pursuit of the retreating Nazis in what was called the Vistula-Oder Offensive.

When the Soviets reached Auschwitz the Nazi Germans had already evacuated the camp. Tens of thousands of Jewish inmates were forced by their captors on a death march towards Loslau and Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia. Thousands of prisoners died along the way. Those who survived were deported to concentration camps in Germany and Austria. Only 7,500 Jewish inmates remained in Auschwitz, most of them children. Huge piles of cadavers were scattered everywhere - the remains of Jewish prisoners - men, women and children who had been murdered, or who perished of starvation and disease. These and the piles of human ashes and bone, remnants of the gas chambers were all testament to Hitler's Final Solution.

The vast network of Nazi concentration camps and death camps established throughout Europe were managed like efficient "killing factories". By the end of the war a total of about 6 million Jews had been killed by the Nazis.; half of them were Polish Jews and the remainder were Jews who had been deported from all parts of Europe - one million of them were children. Least known is the fact that Hitler also planned to eliminate ethnic Poles, and by the end of the war about 5 million Polish citizens had perished. Though many other peoples had been killed by the Nazis, the Jews and the Poles were the ones singled out for annihilation.

On November 1, 2005 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 60/7 designating January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The following is an excerpt:

Reaffirming that the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice,

1. Resolves that the United Nations will designate 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust;

2. Urges Member States to develop educational programmes that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide, and in this context commends the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research;

3. Rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or part;

4. Commends those States which have actively engaged in preserving those sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration camps, forced labour camps and prisons during the Holocaust;

5. Condemns without reserve all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occur;

6. Requests the Secretary-General to establish a programme of outreach on the subject of the "Holocaust and the United Nations" as well as measures to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education, in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide; to report to the General Assembly on the establishment of this programme within six months from the date of the adoption of the present resolution; and to report thereafter on the implementation of the programme at its sixty-third session.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is more than a day of commemoration and memorials. It serves as a perennial reminder to every nation and citizen thereof that we are
obligated under the principals of natural law to respect one another irregardless of nationality, race, color, or creed.

The following are only excerpts of speeches made on November 1, 2005 by a few of the selected members of delegations who attended the 42nd plenary meeting of the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly. They speak about the importance of observing International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the urgency of educating the world about the horrors of the past - so that they do not repeat in the future. These are not words to be taken lightly.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Speaker: Liu Zhongzin

(Spoke in Chinese)

"Allow me to express, on behalf of the Chinese Government and people, our profound condolences in connection with the 6 million Jewish and other victims of the Holocaust and our sincere sympathy to all the bereaved families and the survivors of the Holocaust.

"Sixty years ago, military aggressors also inflicted untold misery on Asia. Casualties in China alone reached 35 million, of which more than 300,000 died during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Like the Jewish people, the people of Asia will never forget that chapter in our history.

"Our purpose in emphasizing such an indelible memory is not to perpetuate hatred but to use history as a mirror and to look into the future. The bitter lessons of the Second World War and the tragedy of the Nazi camps have taught us that the basic values of freedom, democracy, equality, justice and peace cannot be denied.

HASEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN

Speaker: Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein

"Sixty years on, we live at a time when it is still difficult for the vast majority of Member States to examine their own national histories to their very limits, particularly their modern histories. And while we should continue to feel great pride in what good we find in them, we must also begin to reckon with what in our national memory is distasteful or perhaps even criminal or terrible. It is therefore extraordinary and encouraging how a few European States have started to follow the example set by Germany many years ago, in beginning a process of recovering memory and in beginning a painful and critical, although ultimately liberating self-examination where their part in the Holocaust is concerned.

"The concentration of evil found within the historical experience that is the Holocaust does, however, bring the point home for all peoples everywhere, Jewish and otherwise. And the principal lesson drawn by 100 members of the General Assembly is that if we are ever to make genocide and the like truly unthinkable in the future, not only must we squarely confront the philosophies of negation within our own socieities, where and whenever they occur, but, if we are to give true meaning to the phrase "Never again", we must also collectively support the existence of the world's only permanent judicial body designed to end impunity for the gravest of crimes - and that body is, of course, the International Criminal Court.......

GUATEMALA

Speaker: Mr. Skinner-Klée

(Spoke in Spanish)

"We are gathered here today in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust, innocent human beings who were the victims of ethnic and racial hatred and political and social intolerance. The Shoah is the greatest horror suffered by humanity in the twentieth century: the execrable extermination of more than a third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities who died unjustly and cruelly, murdered only because they were different, only because they were not understood or tolerated.

"Thus, the constructive and peaceful co-existence of peoples depends on mutual respect and mutual
understanding. Unless there is a genuine dialogue among nations and among civilizations, ignorance will persist and the human family will continue to be threatened or once again become its own victim.

"Guatemala knows only too well the horror caused by intolerance. Guatemalans have suffered in their own flesh the maelstrom of violence that afflicted our country merely because some people professed contrary views, held different beliefs or belonged to a different ethnic or social group.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Speaker: Mr. Shin Kak-Soo

"Let me begin by joining other delegations in expressing our deepest sympathy in connection with the millions of victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War who were murdered because of their ethnic origins, religious faith or political beliefs, and in condemning in the strongest possible terms the horrific, inhuman crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime.

"It goes without saying that such a horrendous tragedy should never be allowed to recur. To our dismay, however, we cannot deny that even today we are witnessing genocide and many crimes against humanity, from Srebrenica to Kigali to Darfur. Those recent acts of genocides and crimes against humanity, still fresh in our memory, compel the international community to redouble its efforts to put in place a reliable and effective security system that deters such heinous crimes and promotes mutual understanding and tolerance among people of all ethnicities, races, cultures and nations.

"As a country that suffered greatly from atrocities committed during the Second World War, the Republic of Korea has decided to become a sponser of the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance. We believe that proclaiming 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust is a good way to ensure that the Holocaust's dreadful lessons are not forgotten. We cannot allow the memory of these crimes to fade with the passage of time.

"We also believe strongly that any attempt to deny the Holocaust as a historical reality, in full or in part, must be rejected. It takes courage to tell the truth about the past when that truth is painful or even shameful.

"....Facing up to the truth of history and learning its lessons is not a choice but an obligation. In this regard, we strongly support the draft resolution's recommendation to develop educational programmes that will teach the lessons of the Holocaust to future generations. It is the collective obligation of humanity to promote education and tolerance so that there will never again be a similar tragedy.

BELARUS

Speaker: Mr. Dapkiunas

(Spoke in Russian)

"The draft resolution to be adopted today is a testament to terrible grief and pain. For the people of my country, Belarus, such pain is not an alien experience; it is our pain as well. The flames of blind racial hatred and ethnic exclusion did not only claim countless victims in Belarus. The brutality of the Nazi regime and the incinerating flames of the Holocaust are seared into the soul of the people of Belarus.

"Why, 60 years after the end of the Second World War, are we still returning to this topic - not as a distant and tragic chapter of our history, but as a page in our collective life that has not yet been turned? Why do many millions of poeple throughout the world continue to experience the daily, direct and obvious threat and unbearable suffering that result from ideas of racial superiority and ethnic enmity?

" As long as we live in a world divided into "us and them", as long as we feel that the bitter lessons of history must be learned by others and not by us, as long as we do not do everything in our power to understand and welcome those who do not resemble us, the echoes of the Holocaust will continue to resound in our hearts.....

UKRAINE

Speaker: Mr. Kuchinsky

"The Holocaust is a permanently painful subject not only for the Jewish people but for the world community as a whole. We remember the enormous suffering of those who perished in the death camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau and many other horrific sites, where, in the name of a perverse and inhuman ideology, millions of human beings were deliberately and cruelly exterminated. Jews and gypsies, men and women, children and the elderly - the sons and daughters of different nations, including hundreds of thousands from Ukraine, became the innocent victims of a ruthless political system that caused immense losses to humankind.

"Many thought that the horrors of the Second World War - the camps, the cruelty, the exterminations that took place during the Holocaust - could never happen again. And yet they have - in Cambodia, Srebrenica, Rwanda, and most recently, in Darfur.

"In that respect, we are deeply convinced that the history of the Holocaust must be learned and extensively explained so that a similar tragedy never happens again.

"As we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, Ukraine cannot but recall the terrible damage which intolerance, violence and aggression caused in the past.....one of the most tragic chapters in Ukraine's history, the Great Famine of 1932-33 - in Ukrainian, Holodomor, which means "death by famine". Deliberately aimed at the very core of the Ukrainian nation, the cruel campaign of terror by hunger carried out by the totalitarian Soviet regime led to the deaths of seven to 10 million innocent men, women and children.

"Ukraine will continue to do its utmost to bring the truth about Holodomor and the Holocaust to the world at large. We believe that it is high time that the international community recognized that crime as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation.

FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL

Speaker: Mr. Sardenberg

"The Jewish Holocaust is the paradigmatic case of genocide, a crime that until that time lacked a definition and did not allow for legal recourse. None of the Hague Conventions mentioned genocide, nor could the massacres that had taken place be properly judged or their perpetrators punished owing to the lack of a legal definition of genocide.

"Of particular historical resonance in our part of the world are the crimes committed against the indigenous peoples of the America during the colonial period and during the period when slavery was practised. It remains profoundly shocking to the conscience of mankind that those crimes could have reached such inconceivable proportions.

"The fight against the crime of genocide will only be complete when Member States adhere to and implement human rights instruments in both the domestic and the international spheres.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC

Speaker: Mr. Mayoral

(Spoke in Spanish)

"Collective remembrance is indispenable in world overwhelmed by the need to solve new problems and at a time when young people may think that the Holocaust was an event of history that occurred under specific political circumstances and for reasons that no longer exist. They are wrong. Faced with that possible reaction, we must realize that no country in the world can consider itself immune from a future wave of violence fuelled by intolerance, economics, religious fundamentalism, political intolerance or racial conflict, or even a combination of any of them.

"We are in a crucial moment of history when we are all called upon to make further efforts of generosity in order to face up to new challenges and threats to a future of peace based upon the respect for all persons and peoples. My country believes that task must be carried out within the collective framework of the United Nations. If we want to avoid repeating the cycle of history and avoid another Holocaust and genocide such as occurred in the last century, we must keep alive the memory of what happened, by giving the United Nations powerful tools to effectively protect human rights in all circumstances and at all times.

REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA

Speaker: Mr. Pfanzelter

"Austria attaches great significance to the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance and is honoured to be among its earliest sponsers. The designation of 27 January, the day of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust is of special significance to all of us. Auschwitz is of global relevance.

"For Austria, this day is a reminder of the dark sides of our past. We feel the agony of knowing that our country lost so many of its Jewish citizens to the Holocaust. At the same time we feel the pain of realizing that far too many Austrians took part in the genocide, a crime of colossal proportions.

"Simon Wisenthal, who passed away a few weeks ago, helped us to come to terms with our past when he said, "For your benefit, learn from our tragedy". He showed us that education and information are powerful tools for preventing the tragic repetition of history.

"Today, we should all remember Simon Wiesenthal's speech to the General Assembly 10 years ago (see A/50/PV.66). He called upon the international community to warn younger generations against prejudices, especially the prejudice of racial hatred, which has led to immeasurable human suffering. Austria is conscious of its responsibility and is taking a broad spectrum of measures to fight anti-Semitism, xenophobia and other forms racism and intolerance at all levels.

"We have successfully initiated national programmes aimed at teaching our young people about the lessons of history. The young generation, representing our future, must be taught that no country and no society can achieve any degree of progress or development without respect for human rights and the dignity of each human being. That is the lesson that the memory of Auschwitz hands down from generation to generation.

VATICAN CITY - THE HOLY SEE

Speaker: Archbishop Miglore

"Remembering is a duty and a common responsibility. That is especially true in the case of the Holocaust. So, my delegation welcomes the draft resolution on Holocaust remembrance and congratulates all those that sponsored it.

"For 60 years, we have had the horror of this kind of crime before us, and yet, history has repeated itself. An international convention against that crime has not prevented the kind of thinking that leads to genocide, the violence that sparks genocide, the injsutices that make it possible or the interests that allow a genocide to be sustained over time. The twentieth century witnessed genocides, atrocities, mass killings and ethnic cleansings which, deplorably, were not confined to just one continent. As we stand before the Holocaust, it is only right that we remember and pledge to make the best collective efforts to ensure that, having now named this crime, the world's nations will recognize it for what it is and prevent it in the future.

"After the Shoah, the first step towards prevention was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Many more steps forward are needed. In every country, the memory of the Holocaust must be preserved as a commitment to spare future generations such horror.

BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA

Speaker: Mrs. Nunez de Odreman

(Spoke in Spanish)

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has participated in the adoption by consensus of resolution 60/7 and is in full agreement with the States that sponsored the resolution and endorsed the memorandum of explanation accompanying the draft resolution, which affirmed that the Holocaust constituted a systematic and barbaric attempt to annihilate an entire people in a manner and of a magnitude that has no comparison in the history of humankind.

"We must also recall other Holocaust that took place during that terrible and barbarous conflict and those which came to light at that conflict's end, all equally attributable to founding States of the Unitd Nations that were part of the coalition that defeated the Nazi Fascism exclusively at the military level around the year 1945.

"We are referring to the annihilation of the defenceless population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were victims of a deliberate, devastating destruction by the use of nuclear weapons, without any justification, and to the silent, low-intensity daily annihilation of peoples of the world, whose adults and children are condemned to misery, hunger, ignorance and repression with no escape or hope, as a result of the exploitation and the barbarous, systematic neglect to which they have been submitted during centuries by colonialist and imperialist States and elites that were also the principal actors of the aforementioned war. The annihilation continues today, at the start of the twenty-first century, giving rise to a popular insurgency that seeks to restore justice.

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela also shares the concern and sense of urgency with regard to establishing educational programmes to eradicate from the face of the Earth, genocide as a political act to exterminate groups of human beings or entire peoples on the unspeakable pretext of hatred, racism and the fundamentalist, obsessive and messianic blindness that characterizes religious intolerance. We call upon those States that, together with us, supported the resolution to ensure that the educational programmes proposed therein are designed, in a balanced and well-thought out manner, to put an end to holocausts and to raise global awareness of the perversion and crime against humanity that is genocide - including the genocide of the Jewish people, which deserves universal repudiation.

ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT

Speaker: Mr. Abdelaziz

"We fully share and understand the feelings of the sponsors with regard to the need for Holocaust remembrance. We have no objection to designating 27 January as a day of remembrance in connection with the Holocaust because of our firm belief that the victims of genocide, regardless of their religion or ethnic background, should not be forgotten.

"On the other hand, the resolution fails to address the responsibilities of the society in which the Holocaust was perpetrated and its socio-political and racist causes. Furthermore, we should ask ourselves why we should restrict the resolution on the Holocaust forgetting similar crimes of genocide against Christians and Muslims in Rwanda, and against Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srebrenica, Sanski Most, Kosovo, and elsewhere.

"We are firm in our belief that the established mechanism, in accordance with the resolution, should apply to the victims of genocide as a whole, worldwide, without discrimination on the basis of religious or ethnic background. We trust that the sponsors will consider our strong reservations and reflect on how to put things back into the right perspective. We reserve the right to do so ourselves.

"We further trust that the General Assembly will attach the same importance to financing other activities in similar resolutions in full. In that context, we reserve the right to assist in the implementation of such resolutions all together, so as to ensure equal treatment for all victims of genocide, including the victims of the Holocaust.

MALAYSIA

Speaker: Ms. Ismael

"My delegation joined the consensus on the resolution on Holocaust remembrance. We condemn the Holocaust, as it constituted a systematic and barbarous attempt to annihilate an entire people in a manner and on a scale that have no parallel in human history. Yet its lessons are universal, and my delegation feels that we should draw on them. There are other events that are no less tragic which would benefit from the lessons learned from the Holocaust.

"In this connection, my delegation would have preferred operative paragraph 2 of the resolution to be broader in scope so as to include inculcating in future generations the lessons not only of the Holocaust, but also other acts of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

Speaker: Mr. Anshor

"I am pleased to explain my delegation's position with regard to the resolution that has just been adopted. My delegation went along with its adoption on the basis of a number of understandings.

"First, we recognize that the Holocaust represents a dark episode in human civilization, whose lessons must never be forgottten if we are to save future generations from similar atrocities. However, the Holocaust is not the only human tragedy that provides such lessons. There are numerous others that send an equally strong message and warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice. Human history, whether classical or contemporary, registers a long list of human tragedies. Therefore, we would have preferred it if the sponsors, in formalizing and institutionalizing Holocaust remembrance and education within the United Nations system through the resolution, ahd given equal attention to other human tragedies.

JAPAN

Speaker: Mr. Ozawa

"My delegation wishes to exercise its right reply in connection with the statement made by the representative of China regarding atrocities during the Second World War in Asia. Mistakes made in our past history must be remembered. We must learn from them and resolve never to allow them to happen again. Only by learning from the past can humanity make progress in the future.

"On the occasion of the recent Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia, Prime Minister Koizumi stated,

"In the past Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. Japan squarely faces those facts of history in a spirit of humility. And with a feeling of deep remorse and hearfelt apology always engraved in mind, Japan has resolutely and consistently maintained since the end of the Second World War never to turn into a military power but to be an economic power and its principle of resolving all matters by peaceful means without recourse to the use of force.

"Japan once again states its resolve to contribute to the peace and prosperity of the world, in the future as well, prizing the relationship of trust it enjoys with the nations of the world."

These are very sobering words amidst a world hell-bent on destroying each other in the name of national or cultural self-preservation. While it is of utmost importance to remember the Holocaust, we must also acknowledge the horrendous genocides that have been perpetrated against other peoples since the end of World War II.

But I must add a word of caution here. The term "Holocaust" must never be appropriated to describe any other genocide. "The Holocaust" uniquely refers to the tragedy of the Jewish people, just as the word "Shoah" cannnot be used to categorize other genocides. The delegate from the Ukraine, Mr. Kuchinsky addressed this issue though indirectly, by mentioning the terrible genocide suffered by the Ukrainian people in the Great Famine of 1932-33. He did not refer to it as "the Holocaust", but rather the "Holodomor".

I strongly support this Resolution and do not approve of any attempt to alter the content of its assertions. I do however strongly recommend that the United Nations consider the idea of adopting (many) subsequent resolutions that address each genocide separately. This strategy can only serve to magnify the urgency which is needed to deal with our global conflicts. Because, when we are faced with an overwhelming plethora of United Nations resolutions on genocides, it will force us to look at the enormity of our evils - so that we can no longer bear to let it continue.

If the word "Holocaust" falls into misuse, it will become a kind of repository for the history of all the genocides of the world - past, present and (God forbid) the future. This will serve only to blur our collective vision of the past and dilute our understanding of the historic details.

I conclude this blog post with the words of Elie Wiesel: (he was a Holocaust survivor, and became a renowned author, professor, and is a Nobel Laureate.)

"Not every victim was a Jew,

but every Jew was a victim"

Please donate funds to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Poland so that they may preserve it as an historical site. Teams of highly qualified specialists in landmark preservation work tirelessly to preserve all the artifacts and structures on the site. Click on the following link to visit their website, and please donate generously. Thank you.

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU MUSEUM